Passenger injured in taxi receives £337,500 compensation

Mrs M* sustained personal injury and other losses following a road traffic accident. She was a rear seat passenger in a black taxi cab driven by the defendant who failed to slow down as he approached a red traffic light, colliding with a Mercedes Benz who was stationary at the traffic lights.

Mrs M sustained a comminuted fracture of the proximal tibia of her right leg, together with an occluded popliteal artery which it was felt might initially compromise the leg and require amputation. Within 24 hours she underwent expiration of the wound and had an external fixator applied to the leg. Two debridements were carried out together with a change of fixator and skin graft to the unsightly central defect to the leg.

She has been left with permanent aching and swelling in the leg, a moderate chance of developing degenerative changes in the knee and suffered from a complex vascular injury/damage to the leg and is at risk of developing significant life threatening complications in the future. Mrs M has also been left with a risk of amputation to the leg in the future. She has been left with a very obvious defect to the leg which requires a prosthetic plug plus unsightly scarring from skin grafts.

Primary liability was admitted but with allegations of contributory negligence due to failure to wear a seatbelt. The defendants made a 75/25% offer on liability and following detailed analysis and questioning of the medical experts as to the likely severity of her injuries had she been wearing a seatbelt. Liability split was agreed at 80/20% in her favour.

Boyes Turner's specialist road traffic accident claims team obtained initial and follow up medical reports from various experts – orthopaedic, vascular, plastics, psychiatric and prosthetic - all of which played a key role in maximising the overall claim. On disclosure of the prosthetic report we obtained a significant interim payment to enable Mrs M to purchase the recommended prosthetics and show that these made a significant improvement to the defect and to evidence she benefitted from the same and would continue to do so in the future.

The defendants made an offer to settle the claim for £50,000 following the issue of proceedings which was immediately dismissed by Mrs M following the advice of Boyes Turner as woefully inadequate – the prosthetic claim alone exceeded that sum. Furthermore, Mrs M was unable to continue with her very demanding job in London and moved back to Liverpool to be nearer her parents who provided care and assistance to her and her young son. She did manage to continue to work but only in a part time role and the medical evidence was that she would be unlikely to be able to return to a full time role due to ongoing, permanent symptoms. The claim therefore included the difference between her full time London salary and her part time Liverpool salary over the rest of her working life.

Following a joint settlement meeting, the claim settled in the sum of £337,500, together with a provisional damages claim to enable Mrs M to return to court and obtain further compensation should a number of identified complications arise, one being amputation to her leg.